Alice Sullivan Scholarships Available: EP's Sullivan a Pioneer in Women's Athletics

RI Interscholastic League Director of Multimedia Content, Carolyn Thornton, has announced that Alice Sullivan Memorial Scholarship Applications are available for female student-athletes.

Alice Sullivan was a retired physical-education teacher and former vice principal of East Providence High School. She was the first director of girls sports for the Interscholastic League, a position she held for 24 years. "Alice Sullivan’s time as a teacher and administrator at East Providence High School spanned four decades. That is an impressive length of service all on its own, but Sullivan’s contributions to Rhode Island’s student-athletes, especially girls, went even further than that," said Thornton. The driving force behind girls sports being added to the Rhode Island Interscholastic League in the late 1960s, she became the league’s director of girls sports and then its first assistant executive director.

By the time Sullivan stepped down from her position at the RIIL in 1996, the league was offering 14 sports for girls. Even after her retirement, she continued to work tirelessly to ensure that girls received the best athletic opportunities possible until her death in November 2003 at the age of 78. Shortly after her passing, a foundation and scholarship was created in Sullivan’s name “to sustain in perpetuity Alice Sullivan’s life, character and enthusiasm for girls athletics.”

She was inducted into the Rhode Island Interscholastic League Hall of Fame and also the East Providence High School Hall of Fame. Her numerous honors include: 1983, the Rhode Island Board of Women's Basketball Officials names its annual award for outstanding and dedicated service the Alice Sullivan Award; 1981, "Service to Women in Rhode Island," by the Permanent Advisory Commission on Women; 1967, National Jaycees Physical Fitness Leadership Award, the first woman ever selected.

Applications are currently being accepted for the Alice Sullivan Scholarship, which is open to female high school or collegiate student-athletes planning to pursue a career in coaching, officiating or athletic administration.

Deadline to submit an application is April 17, 2017. Click here for an application, which can also be found at riil.org. (Go to “Resources” and then “Documents and Forms”)